Welcome to the Hog Blog, a blog chronicling minor-league baseball in the Lehigh Valley. Tom Housenick, The Morning Call's IronPigs beat writer, has been at The Morning Call since 2008. In a previous lifetime, he was at Lackawanna County Stadium in Moosic talking with future Phillies Jimmy Rollins, Pat Burrell, Shane Victorino and Ryan Howard, among many others.
He’ll now be spending his summers in search of who the Phillies are hoping to be the next Chase Utley and Cole Hamels plus any outfielder who catch and hit. What he really hopes to find are the next Mariano Rivera, Todd Helton and Jim Thome --- great human beings who happened to be great at this sport.
He spent the last five years covering Colonial League football, college basketball and high school track & field.

When discussing Cameron Rupp last week, Phillies minor league director Joe Jordan hinted strongly that the fast-rising catcher's season "still might have some baseball to play" after the IronPigs season comes to a close on Monday.

September call-up? Arizona Fall League? Winter ball?

"I'm talking about any combination of that," Jordan said.

Tuesday, Rupp was one of seven Phillies minor leaguers assigned to the AFL.

Three of them -- Rupp and outfielders Aaron Altherr and Kelly Dugan -- must be added to the Phillies' 40-man roster this winter or be exposed to the Rule 5 draft, and the Phillies like to use the AFL as a auditioin if you will for prospects in such situations. But unless the Phillies just don't want to shuffle the 40-man roster in September, the odds are pretty good that Rupp will be on it before heading to the Southwest.

Rated behind Tommy Joseph and Sebastian Valle on the organizational depth chart prior to the season, Rupp has bloossomed after Joseph suffered a season-ending concussion in May -- one that might end h is career behind the plate -- and Valle has struggled at Reading.

"Last winter I did 20 of these interviews where I talked about our catching and our catching depth, and I kept telling all of you guys [that] there's three guys in this conversation," Jordan said. "He came forward last year a great deal, and the year he's had, he's really kind of kepth things going. He's a true success story for our development staff this year."

Rupp is hitting .272 with six homers in 50 games, and has hit 14 homers in 91 games between Reading and the IronPigs. He's also thrown out 40 percent of basestealers here with the IronPigs, a number that would rank among the International League leaders if he had enough games to qualify.

At the beginning of the year the Phillies were hoping Joseph would be in a position next spring to challenge for a spot on the major league roster if Carlos Ruiz left as a free agent. Now, Rupp has stepped up into that position.

"I think that we feel that he's definitely an answer for us," Jordan said. "Whether it's an everyday answer or back-up initially, he's put himself in the conversation that he's going to be competing for that. He's a future major league player."

Traditiionally, the Phillies bring up a third catcher when the rosters expand in September. Currently, the only catcher besides Ruiz and Erik Kratz on the 40-man roster is Valle, who has fallen to .205 with 12 homers in 92 games.

So there's no question Rupp should be the one heading south next week -- if he's not busy in the IL playoffs.

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Altherr, a .254 hitter over his first four seasons since being taken on the ninth round in 2009, is batting 276 with career-highs in doubles (36), home runs (12) and RBI (68) at Clearwater.

Dugan, the second-round pick that season, hit .318 with 10 homers and 36 RBI in 56 games at Clearwater to earn a promotion to Reading, where he's hit .262 with 10 homers adn 21 RBI inn 50 games.

The other four are pitchers -- right-handers Mike Nesseth, Ken Giles and Kyle Simon, and left-hander Austin Wright. Nesseth is the only one at Triple-A, reaching the IronPigs after starting the season at Clearwater.

Giles, a seventh-round pick in 2011, has a powerful right arm -- he averages well over a strikeout an inning so far in his career -- but but has also walked 71 in nearly 100 pro innings.

Simon was impressive after coming over from Baltimiore in the Jim Thome deal last summer and was a non-roster invitee to big league camp this spring but has struggled with injuries at Reading this season.

Wright was suffering through a brutal season as a starter in Reading before moving to the bullpen, but was an eighth-round pick in 2011.